We would scarcely now think of squirrels, particularly red squirrels, the smallest and most skittish of the squirrel family, being suitable as housepets. There are, in fact, laws in Canada against the capture and maintenance of wild animals. It seems cruel to consign an animal, in any event, whose natural condition is to be at one with its environment, to being housebound, giving it physical parameters wholly at variance with what nature intended for it.
There are some who think of those ubiquitous curious, and often destructively raiding squirrels as bothersome rodent pests. And there are others, like me and my husband, who appreciate their presence and admire their indomitable resistance against succumbing to adverse conditions, learning to accommodate themselves to being urbanized, yet free. Their survival instinct is equal to that of any other of nature's creatures.
Unlike dogs and cats, whose human-animal connection has been cultivated over thousands of years, based on mutual usefulness which has long outlived its practical value, the emotional affection and mutual emotional dependency remains intact.
We love to feed the squirrels peanuts on our daily ravine walks, my husband and I, noting their actions and anticipation and their amazing antics in their natural environment. Although we were loathe to feed them closer to home because of the prevalence of predatory neighbourhood cats, we succumbed to the need to put out food for birds in this very cold and snowy winter, and the squirrels, seeing an advantage, have taken to visiting us as well.
It was interesting to note a small news item in today's paper that in Russia a kind of renaissance has taken place with squirrels becoming increasingly popular as personal pets, to the point that Moscow parks are becoming depleted of their squirrels by the actions of poachers whose websites offer these ill-gotten prospective pets for sale at 5,000 rubles ($159.50).
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| 1765, "Boy With a Squirrel" |
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